Celts Ticket Increase POing The Fans

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Leave it to Evil Wyc to spin this...

Celtics tix hike may price out top seats
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald
Tuesday, March 23, 2004 
The cost of going to a Celtics game could take another big leap for thousands of fans in FleetCenter luxury seats - even as the team's front office touts a hold-the-line policy on ticket prices. 
	
The Green Team's decision to raise prices by more than 20 percent for seats near the FleetCenter's court may trigger a matching price jump in 4,000 club and luxury suite seats higher up in the arena, based on the Celtics lease. 
	
Such a move could push the price of Celtics tickets for FleetCenter club and luxury suite owners from $140 to $170. This comes even as fans in the FleetCenter's upscale seating sections absorb the shock of this season's Celtics price hike, from $95 to $140 a game. 
	
Mark Hurwitz, a South Shore manufacturing executive whose firm owns two FleetCenter club seats, has had enough. 
	
Disgusted with the hike to $140, Hurwitz sold his Celtics tickets this season at a discount to a colleague at another company. Now Hurwitz's firm may dump the club seats altogether. 
	
``We wouldn't renew it at the $140, never mind the $170,'' Hurwitz said. ``They (the Celtics) are clearly in a rebuilding mode, but are charging a contending price.'' 
	
The potential for a big ticket price hike, however, was not addressed in a team press release last week touting next season's conservative pricing. 
	
The team's new owners, led by Belmont venture capitalist Wyc Grousbeck, jacked up ticket prices across the FleetCenter by nearly 20 percent coming into the season. 
	
With attendance having hit its lowest since the FleetCenter opened, the Celtics front office last week announced prices would be staying the same or even going down for 4,700 seats. Meanwhile, another 350 seats near the court would jump from $140 to $170 and from $70 to $85. 
	
But left unmentioned was the fact that the higher of the two price increases, under the terms of the Celtics FleetCenter lease, is expected to require a corresponding jump in Celtics ticket prices charged to luxury seat owners, say executives familiar with the agreement. Last year's price increase stemmed from this lease provision. 
	
FleetCenter chief Rich Krezwick could not be reached for comment. 
	
Rick Gotham, Celtics executive vice president of sales and corporate development, defended the announcement, noting it pertained only to Celtics fans who are season ticket holders. This does not include FleetCenter club seat owners, who buy their tickets separately. 
	
Moreover, Gotham said, there is no guarantee the price will rise from the current $140. While declining to discuss the details of the lease, Gotham said he expected Celtics brass and the FleetCenter ownership to discuss the issue. 
	
``They are fans and of course we care about them,'' Gotham said of the FleetCenter luxury seat owners.